This week’s entry will run through recent notable and instructive 10-Q filings that had frequent references to ASC 606. Additionally, we also share a high value ASC 606 exchange between a company and an analyst during a recent earnings call and a few notable articles.

This week’s entry will run through recent notable and instructive 10-Q filings that had frequent references to ASC 606. Additionally, we also share a high value ASC 606 exchange between a company and an analyst during a recent earnings call.

12/3/18: Weekly Revenue Recognition - ASC 606 RoundupTo quickly identify ASC 606 information in the below links, click on the link, hit Control + F, enter the text “606”, “2014-09”, or “ASC” and go to your search results.To quickly identify key areas, open each link and search for “606” or “2014-09” in the text. This week’s blog focuses on SEC filings, SEC Comment Letters, and SEC Comment Letter responses for Amazon. Over the past few months a highly instructive and informative interplay of communications occurred between Amazon and the SEC specific to ASC 606. This week’s blog will chronologically outline these communications with our thoughts on the value of each.

Our thoughts: Amazon’s 10-K and 8-K filings disclose quantitative information on the number of global Amazon Prime members along with how many shipments were applicable to those Prime members. Due to the prevalence of Amazon Prime in the market, this information on its own holds value, but it also leads into a question about the financial impacts/benefits of these members in terms of net sales and revenue. The SEC Comment Letter aims at this area asking for greater detail on net sales in future filings. From our standpoint, this is a logical ask if for no other reason than Amazon Prime is touted as a high-profile product/service offering of a highly popular and notable company. It’s a question that an analyst, investor, or really any reader of the filing would intuitively think of asking after reading such a disclosure. For the 10-Q filing’s SEC Comment Letter input, the focus was on reconciling qualitative points made in the filing specific to presenting revenue on a gross versus net basis for similar products/services. At one point in the filing, the company notes that it presents revenue on a net basis for digital media content while later in the filing it states that it presents revenue on a gross basis for digital media content. This is a solid working example where the SEC asks a company to offer clarity on how it arrived at its decisions specific to ASC 606’s application. It’s not enough for companies to simply state what was done specific to ASC 606; they must also provide details and analysis that led to its determinations.Beyond the above, the SEC asks the company to provide greater clarity on how it determines whether revenue is taken over time or at a point in time for specific products and services.

Our thoughts: The company’s response to the first SEC Comment regarding Net Sales for Prime members is striking on a few fronts. First, it clearly pushes back on the SEC’s request. What’s notable in the company’s response is that it appears to be highly focused on what makes the most sense from the company’s standpoint, from its management’s standpoint, rather than attempting to meet the SEC halfway in terms of identifying what value it could offer from an investor’s, analyst’s, or other party’s viewpoint to grade the company’s performance. The answer is robust in terms of qualitative details even to the point of opening the curtain a bit in terms of its sales, marketing, and operational approaches for Prime memberships. Yet, it is company-focused in our view.In terms of responses to the SEC’s comments on its 10-Q filing, the company’s feedback appears to be more favorable in terms of playing ball with the SEC. Meaning, the company goes to great lengths in its responses to address the what, why, how, and when points in its answers to the point where you could say it discloses more about its financial and operational decisions than pre-ASC 606 filings. In alignment with points made in prior SOFTRAX blogs, and by articles put forward from the Big 4, the level of detail that ASC 606 pushes companies to disclose needs to be governed by companies to be sure it does not share too much putting it at a competitive disadvantage in some cases.

Our thoughts: This SEC Comment Letter goes back at the company pushing for clarity on when revenue is recognized for specific services the SEC inquired about in its initial Comment Letter. The direct line of questioning offers prescriptive guidance to the company so that it provides a satisfactory answer to the questions. The crux of the SEC’s push is to have the company fully disclose which of the services is recognized at a point-in-time versus those are recognized over time. The takeaway is that the initial set of responses from the company did not satisfy the SEC. As a result, their questions were repeated in a direct, targeted, manner to remove ambiguity in the company’s answers.

Our thoughts: The company modified their disclosures in alignment with what the SEC requested. Similar to a point made above, the company’s answers shine a light on business practices (marketing, operational, sales, etc.) that otherwise might not be shared. It’s an example of how ASC 606 will push companies to reveal more per its disclosure requirements. Companies need to be vigilant that such disclosures do not expose too much to competitors.What level of risk are you willing to accept with your company’s ASC 606 adoption? What would the costs be to your company if it gets ASC 606 wrong? What would the costs be for you? We encourage you to visit http://www.softrax.com for information on how SOFTRAX can help your company and you handle ASC 606.

Please join us on Tuesday, December 11, 2018 at 1pm EST for part #4 of SOFTRAX’s ASC 606 Disclosures webinar series. In prior webinars, we reviewed SEC Comment Letters focused on ASC 606. In this webinar, we revisit these letters paired with companies’ responses. We also review more recent ASC 606 SEC Comment Letters with the corresponding company responses.

Beginning in January, we posted a blog outlining five important reasons why excel spreadsheets were not to be trusted for implementation of the ASC 606 guidelines. Since then, we have extended that blog post into a series devoted to the topic of Excel, focusing each post to one of the five reasons. This month’s FINALE: “Excel is not a ReportingTool”.

Beginning in January, we posted a blog outlining five important reasons why excel spreadsheets were not to be trusted for implementation of the ASC 606 guidelines. Since then, we have extended that blog post into a series devoted to the topic of Excel, focusing each post to one of the five reasons. This month’s rally: “Excel is Not an Agile Business Tool”.

Over the past months, we reviewed public companies’ filings to understand how they planned, implemented, and adopted ASC 606. As the ASC 606 adoption date has come and gone, and many companies are filing their first 10-Q’s under ASC 606, an important point to consider is the extent to which the SEC will do in-depth comparisons between a company’s 10-K filing before adopting ASC 606 and its 10-Q filing after adopting ASC 606. This specific point stood out when we were comparing Amazon’s 10-K filing, where Amazon stated its ASC 606 plan and expected impacts, to its recent 10-Q filing which was its first under ASC 606.

Beginning in January, we posted a blog outlining five important reasons why excel spreadsheets were not to be trusted for implementation of the ASC 606 guidelines. Since then, we have extended that blog post into a series devoted to the topic of Excel, focusing each post to one of the five reasons. This month’s rally: “Excel is Not Intended for Sharing”.

This week’s edition pivots to a few recent articles that discuss ASC 606. We’ll be back to focusing on SEC filings and comment letters soon, but wanted to change-up this week’s content as a value-add for our readers.

As companies assess their implementations of the ASC 606 standard, many are looking to the first adopters and in particular, their initial disclosures and subsequent comment letters from the SEC. In this special-topic blog series from SOFTRAX, we take a look at what can be learned from your peers related to ASC 606. We'll round up what's noteworthy and point you to it with our commentary, so that you can focus your time on using these takeaways to help your own organization navigate the components of ASC 606.

This week’s roundup focuses on 10-Q’s submitted during the week of 5/7/18.

As companies assess their implementations of the ASC 606 standard, many are looking to the first adopters and in particular, their initial disclosures and subsequent comment letters from the SEC. In this special-topic blog series from SOFTRAX, we take a look at what can be learned from your peers related to ASC 606. We'll round up what's noteworthy and point you to it with our commentary, so that you can focus your time on using these takeaways to help your own organization navigate the components of ASC 606.

This week’s roundup focuses on half a dozen 10-Q filings that had solid ASC 606 information.

As companies assess their implementations of the ASC 606 standard, many are looking to the first adopters and in particular, their initial disclosures and subsequent comment letters from the SEC. In this new series from SOFTRAX, we take a look at what can be learned from your peers related to ASC 606. We'll round up what's noteworthy and point you to it with our commentary, so that you can focus your time on using these takeaways to help your own organization navigate the components of ASC 606.

This week’s round-up targets recent S-1, 10-Q, and 10-K filings for companies that included ASC 606 adoption details and impacts.

I’ll say this once, say it twice, and then say it three times: the ultimate goal of the FASB’s Accounting Standards Update ASC 606, is to provide a more consistent and comprehensive view of financials on both the national and international platforms to the users of financial statements (meaning we, the people).

In January, we posted a blog outlining five important reasons why excel spreadsheets were not to be trusted for implementation of the ASC 606 guidelines. Today, we’ll expand on the first point, “Excel is error-prone”.

Have you hit the snooze button one too many times on your revenue recognition alarm? It’s every student’s (or accountant’s) nightmare: before you know it, the term has ended, and one of the most important tests of the year (ASC 606 and IFRS 15: Revenue from Contracts with Customers), is here. Your teacher will soon hand you the revenue recognition standard exam – but are you ready?

Public and private companies alike are at varying stages in adoption of the new revenue recognition standard, Revenue from Contracts with Customers. Many finance and accounting departments have experienced challenges in understanding and implementing the new rules as it applies to their business because the new ASC 606 guidance has proven to be more complex than initially anticipated.

So the holiday season is just around the corner. Right around the second corner in the New Year, new revenue recognition regulations will be in front of us. Honestly. Really. 2018 is lurking in the hallway and there’s no avoiding it.

When talking to professional services organizations on a daily basis, Changepoint’s Director of Product Management, Greg Davidson, has come across many who still do not have enough information or do not clearly understand if there is an impact (or what the impact is). Or even avoiding it, hoping down the road someone will make it simpler! Although the pace has picked up considerably as we approach the effective date of 1 January 2018, there are still many organizations that need to ramp up their preparation.

Greg will be co-presenting a live webinar on November 16 (9am PSF / 12pm EST / 6pm CET) along with Jeff Halden from Softrax to address the impact of the new revenue recognition standard on PSO’s.

During the webinar, he’ll talk you through the ‘Five Step Framework’ of Revenue Recognition and highlight key areas of concern for PSO’s such as the treatment of revenue and how Professional Services Automation can help you better manage revenue recognition.

The reporting deadlines imposed by the ASC 606 and IFRS 15 standards are fast approaching. That means the time for companies to get serious about implementing the new revenue recognition standards is now. Embedded within the regulations is the concept of a significant financing component, which means for many companies, adopting the new revenue recognition standard and managing the time value of money will have a significant impact on their business processes.

The complexities of FASB and the IASB’s new revenue recognition guidelines will place heavy strain on back office processes. For quarters starting after December 15, 2017, companies will be required, under ASC 606 and IFRS 15, to perform specific accounting processes that their existing ERP software or legacy systems don’t execute well or, in some cases, don’t offer at all. Companies considering making changes to their ERP or financial system, should have a clear strategy when it comes to complying with the new revenue recognition rules. ERP systems, by their nature, tend to be a ‘mile wide and ½ inch deep’. They may not be up to this task, nor for that matter, well suited to the new recurring types of revenue associated with the subscription economy. This blog post is the last in a four part series and focuses on a new approach called ERP augmentation.

With the new ASC 606 and IFRS 15 regulations, companies cannot continue with their current revenue accounting practices. When legacy ERP systems no longer support financial processes, it's time to take action and analyze the options for upgrading ERP and financial systems. Organizations with complex revenue recognition must implement a system and a process to remain compliant. This blog series examines four options to get systems up to date – invest in the existing ERP system, supplement with spreadsheets, rip and replace systems, and augment the ERP system. In this blog post, we will help companies analyze the possibility of a “Rip & Replace” of their ERP system with new software.

When it comes to revenue recognition and billing, ERP systems do not have the depth of functionality needed to process revenue under the new ASC 606 and IFRS 15 guidelines. Many finance professionals must use manual methods outside the ERP system to address these challenges.

New business models and FASB’s new revenue recognition guidelines pose a threat to existing ERP systems. Some companies have achieved business improvement from their ERP systems. However, many companies are quickly realizing that the key benefits, once leveraged from their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, are now unavailable due to the increasing complexities stated above.

Enterprise Resource Planning Systems are vital to a company’s success. However, these systems need to be maintained and enhanced to protect their value and serve a company’s changing regulatory needs in an ever changing business landscape. For instance, new business models such as IoT, recurring revenue, and changing regulations (ASC 606 and IFRS 15), all put pressure on back office processes to keep up.

It’s time to start preparing for the new revenue recognition guidelines. Whether you like it or not, ASC 606 / IFRS 15 changes are here and could have a significant impact on your company's reporting, systems, processes, and controls. Companies should start planning now in order to ensure a successful transition to the new ASC 606 / IFRS 15 guidelines.

Organization must keep pace with new recurring revenue models while complying with tremendous change brought on by the new revenue recognition standard embodied in IFRS15 / ASC606. Companies who want to be successful in overcoming revenue recognition challenges should be proactive and start implementing a plan for ASC 606 immediately. Public companies must adopt the new standard for periods starting after Dec, 2017. Private companies must adopt for periods starting after Dec, 2018. There is a lot of work to be done.

To ensure consistent application of rev rec rules, companies need to be armed with a strong internal understanding of how ASC606 applies to their particular business model. Where internal know-how comes up short, third-party consultants can provide the additional expertise – and peace of mind – when assessing the impact of revenue recognition.

The new revenue recognition standard is being converted into a single model across all industries. The new global framework for revenue accounting has numerous challenges for companies including: Application and Controls. Application was described in the previous blog post.

Application of ASC 606 is a major issue for businesses impacted by the new revenue recognition rules. Most companies seem to be generally familiar with the new revenue recognition standard; however, there are specific areas within the rules are vague. Many are left with wondering how the new revenue recognition rules will impact their business. This causes major challenges and risks for any business that doesn't take the time to fully understand how ASC 606 and IFRS 15 affects their operations.

As 2015 comes to a close, were reflecting on all of the exciting revenue recognition standard and awesome tips that we published on the Softrax Blog this year. Did you catch these most popular blog posts on our Softrax Blog? We've compiled them below.

The new revenue recognition rules are daunting and many companies wonder how they will be impacted by ASC 606. What really happens to companies if they don't comply with the new revenue recognition rules? Who enforces these rules? The reinvigorated regulatory agecny, the SEC takes action on improper revenue recognition accounting. Learn about the SEC's role with revenue recognition and how to avoid improper revenue accounting.

Companies will be required to adopt a new universal framework for revenue recognition – one that will hold regardless of vertical, product or service. Currently we have two different standards US GAAP and IFRS 15. The US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and its international counterpart, the IASB, have spent a significant amount of time reassessing their respective principles and decided to standardize revenue recognition into one common standard – ASC606.

The idea of the ‘perfect storm’ was first popularized by journalist Sebastian Junger in his book of the same name, set against the backdrop of the devastating Nor’easter of 1991. Though undeniably destructive, it was the origin of Junger’s storm that caught the public imagination: a chance combination of high-pressure systems, low-pressure systems, and tropical moisture, it showed that three unrelated phenomena coming together at just the right moment could spark a $200M disaster far greater than the sum of its parts.

It’s an apt metaphor for the challenges US businesses currently face, created – like that fateful Nor’easter – by a collision of three separate processes:

In the months since FASB and IASB released the finalized update to their revenue recognition guidance, both boards have seen significant pushback on the effective dates and timeframes for this far-reaching new standard. Last month, FASB Chairman Russell Golden announced that the board was in the process of researching whether implementation deadlines for the guidance – originally scheduled for 2017 and 2018 for public and private organizations, respectively–needed to be pushed back.

When the US Financial Accounting Standard Board (FASB) released its updated revenue recognition guidelines earlier this year, it also spotlighted several industries likely to see substantial impacts from the new ASC 606 guidance. One the most notable verticals on that list: telecommunications.

Once your company reaches a certain size, ERP and financial systems become indispensable in your day-to-day operations. However, the more tightly you integrate these systems with your business processes, the harder -- and more expensive -- it becomes to upgrade or replace them.

In an effort to streamline and update the revenue recognition process for businesses, the US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) and the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) are in the final stages of converging their separate standards for revenue recognition cycles into a single standardized and improved model.

Subscriptions aren’t just for magazines anymore.

In fact, for many businesses—both new and old—subscription-based contracts have become the norm. If you need proof of that, look no further than the software industry. Software was once a physical product: if you wanted to purchase a copy of Microsoft Office, you would pay Microsoft, and Microsoft would deliver you a CD (or in the older days, floppy disks) with the application on it.

There’s something to be said for not messing around with something that works. When corporate technology expert Andy Ziegele told Profit Magazine in 2009 that companies should stick to “vanilla” implementations of their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems as much as possible, it was at the tail end of a string of high-profile and costly ERP implementation disasters spanning the past decade. Companies, Ziegele argued, are not as different as they think, and often their desire for customization is driven more by politics than by a business process so unique that an off-the-shelf ERP can’t handle it.

In today’s marketplace, revenue information is under heavy scrutiny, and is frequently audited. Reliable, accurate revenue reporting is absolutely essential for any business, particularly when it comes to complying with government regulations such as Sarbanes-Oxley.

For younger companies, spreadsheets can be an excellent stop-gap solution for many different applications. They perform valuable mathematical functions and are easy to use, store and access. In smaller companies, they can even be successfully used to identify revenue and manage billing. However, in larger organizations, such methods simply can’t deliver the level of functionality required.

Many companies use a variety of spreadsheets or home-grown applications to sort out, store, and manage their financial data. Either approach is very flexible and capable of doing almost anything. Unfortunately, that very flexibility makes it difficult to develop reusable reports or dashboards that provide the correct visibility into the business, and that are readily available. When executives or auditors require information on the financial state of a company, getting that information usually entails a high-value resource with strong knowledge of the spreadsheets used to track this information developing a custom, one-time report. Though this report can provide a great deal of intelligence on where the company stands, it typically requires time and effort to construct, and often has limited reuse potential. Too, this report will often represent a snap-shot in time; by the time the report is constructed, it is very possible that the financial picture has already changed.

Some companies need a robust billing and/or revenue management solution. Others don’t. If you run a small to medium-sized business with traditional accounting procedures and a simple billing structure, your business needs can probably met by Microsoft Excel or a generic enterprise resource planning (ERP) system like Oracle, SAP, or Microsoft Dynamics.

Conventional spreadsheet applications like Microsoft Excel are fine for small businesses with simple billing procedures and uncomplicated revenue streams. Spreadsheets may be time-consuming to manage, but they'll carry out the required calculations and provide you with straightforward data.

In many ways, spreadsheet applications like Microsoft Excel are the backbone of the business world. With a little ingenuity, they handle everything from project management to employee expenses -- the ideal tool for companies that may not be ready to commit to a full-blown ERP system.